The film, including signature duets of summer nights and You’re the One That I Want with Travolta, remains one of the most successful films of all time, earning more than a third of a billion dollars at the US box office.
In the film, which co-starred Stockard Channing and Didi Conn, Newton-John played an Australian schoolgirl transplanted into Rydell High School in America.
For Newton-John and Travolta the film laid the foundation of a lifelong friendship, the pair intermittently reuniting on concert stages and at special events to perform the movie’s signature songs.
Travolta was among the first to pay tribute to Newton-John publicly.
“My dearest Olivia, you made all of our lives so much better,” Travolta wrote in a post to his Instagram account.
“Your impact was incredible. I love you so much. We will see you down the road and we will all be together again. Yours from the moment I saw you and forever! Your Danny, your John!”
Later, Newton-John evolved musically with more emotionally complex work, such as the albums warm and tender and Stronger Than Before.
Olivia Newton-John with John Travolta in Grease.Credit:AP
She also shifted her focus into healing and wellbeing, following a much-publicized battle with cancer, starting the Olivia Newton-John Foundation Fund.
In the statement posted to her official Facebook account, Newton-John’s family have asked that donations be made in her memory to the fund.
Newton-John received an OBE in 1979, and in 2019 was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire knighthood, though the title Dame Olivia did not fall into everyday usage.
She was admitted to the Australian Recording Industry Association Hall of Fame in 2002; in 2019 she was made a Companion of the Order of Australia.
Oliver Newton-John with husband John Easterling.Credit:Justin McManus
Newton-John was married twice; first to actor Matt Lattanzi in 1984, who she had met on the set of the film Xanadu. The couple had a daughter, Chloe, in 1986 and divorced amicably in 1995.
In 2008, Newton-John married businessman John Easterling in an Inca spiritual ceremony. The couple bought a home on Jupiter Island, Florida, but never moved there. They later bought a horse ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley, outside Santa Barbara.
Newton-John is survived by Easterling, daughter Chloe Lattanzi, sister Sarah Newton-John and brother Toby Newton-John.
She is also survived by her children and nephews Tottie, Fiona and Brett Goldsmith; Emerson, Charlie, Zac, Jeremy, Randall, and Pierz Newton-John; Jude Newton-Stock, Layla Lee; Kira and Tasha Edelstein; and Brin and Valerie Hall.